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Dessert

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

A chilled chocolate custard made with cream, gelatin, and chocolate, folded with whipped cream and set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Whip the cream until frothy and keep it cool.

  2. Dissolve the chocolate in a little boiling water.

  3. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for 1 hour.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the boiling water, sugar, and vanilla to the soaked gelatine.

  2. Set the mixture on the stove to thicken, then stir in the chocolate.

  3. Remove from the stove and let cool.

Set

  1. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream
Whipped to trap air, giving the cream a light, airy texture when folded in.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour of the cream.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the chocolate.
Vanilla
Adds a aromatic note that rounds out the chocolate flavour.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before folding in the cream. Whipped cream deflates and can melt when mixed into warm liquid. Letting the gelatine mixture cool first keeps the air in the cream, so the cream stays light and the dessert sets with a smooth, airy texture.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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